28/11/2016

Gaming Shelf - It's a me Mario!














This is my gaming shelf, I had lots of Nintendo points to use up so went & ordered one of these Mario gaming rack. It's designed for 3DS/DS games but I use it for the PS4.

Nintendo love Sony and vice versa so it's ok.

What is on it at the moment then?

Ok list time!

Dragon Quest Builders
Fifa 16
The Division
The Last of Us
Lego Star Wars
Overwatch
Bioshock Collection
Lego Harry Potter
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Mafia 3
XCom2 (with Abbas at the moment)

You can't fit that many games on it! True you can only get around 8 so the titles in red are on the shelf with the others in a cupboard.

I completed Dragon Quest Builders at the weekend & just ordered Rise of the Tomb Raider today so will start that when it arrives. Loved the first game in the reboot series & was pissed off that it was an XB1 exclusive for a year.

Final Fantasy XI has been released but I am going to wait for a few months for patches to fix issues I am reading about camera control & combat gameplay. Hopefully it will by the drop to my impulse purchase price of below £25

World of Final Fantasy is also on my shopping list, also I may be buying No Man's Sky again, Hello Games have released an update which brings new features like base building & survival mode.

16/11/2016

The not so weekly update - Still playing



I'm still playing Dragon Quest Builders, just completed Chapter 2. The final boss destroyed part of my original town so I rebuilt it into a wooden castle.

Completed Everybody's gone to the rapture, did not like it. 3 hours walking simulator which they could have made a 90min movie & I would have enjoyed it more.

iOS nothing new just the usual. Got to Arena 8 in Clash Royale now, it's tough but I'm still doing ok with my Giant, Dragon, Prince & Hog Rider deck.




19/10/2016

Weekly Update - Dragon Quest Builders



Started Dragon Quest Builders this week, it's a J-RPG heavily influenced by Minecraft, mining for resources & then building from those or crafting them into new items. The quest like structure gives the game a purpose & keeps you moving forward to ultimately battle the evil dragon lord.

I completed Deus Ex Mankind Divided which ends with a to be continued plot line so I fully expect to see another game next year using the same engine. I enjoyed visiting some of the locations especially the Complex, did not really try out much of the new skills apart from remote hacking which was very useful. Don't have the time for a New Game+ playthrough so it's completed.

On No Man's Sky I completed the Atlas Path which rewards you with nothing noteworthy & decided to just watch a YouTube video on the journey to the centre. I feel a bit let down by Hello Games on their lack of communication on what they plan to do with the game if anything so for now I am done.

On iOS I started playing a new game called Oz Broken Kingdom on the ipad it takes the Wizard of Oz story and adds a new twist to it with turn based battles & character upgrades. It has a campaign mode & arena battles with the various obvious upgrades & time based unlock features you expect from most free 2 play games. So far I have not hit any paywalls.

I managed to get a legendary Sparky card on Clash Royale from a free chest !

It's very good you need to let it charge up but it does some serious damage when it attacks.

Next need to save up another 8000 coins to upgrade my bomber to level 10 & then focus on the giant.



Not buying anymore PS4 games on release this year (famous last words) will enjoy Dragon Quest Builders, X-Com 2 (which Abbas has taken with him for now) & the many digital games I own like Telltale Borderlands & the others I can't remember.

No PMG this week but I do really need to get back to playing some Lego Star Wars & Destiny.

13/10/2016

Missing Batman

What do I say?

That tweet six years ago, if only we & Owen knew how serious it was he would still be with us. A day later he passed away :(

He was probably the biggest Batman fan I knew & anytime I play or watch Batman, even the latest Gotham series I stop to think I wonder if Owen would have enjoyed that?

Miss you Batman.

12/10/2016

Weekly Update - Back to gaming



Managed to finally play some video games, a fair bit of Deus Ex Mankind Divided completing quite a few of the main quests. I think I may even be near the end currently in London trying to stop another terrorist attack. I had a conversation with Abbas during the week about the game & he said it was more of the same. The developers have played it safe with the game & the story-line does not seem that big compared to the first game but the gameplay is excellent. I can now use the new abilities & remote hacking is very useful. Should hopefully have the game finished this week in time for Dragon Quest Builders or XCom 2.

Claptrap boys finally completed Diablo 3, yeah it's crap I did not enjoy it. We started The Division yesterday completing the first few missions & making it to the main base. It's not bad much more enjoyable than Diablo 3, the inventory management can be a bit of a challenge with modding etc

Clash Royale I finally have 800 archers to upgrade her to level 10, managed to save up 8K to upgrade her this morning. Hopefully this will be the push I need to get into the next arena.

Frustrating how every player now has one or more legendary cards which are way more powerful and ruins the game.














Finished with Capitals hardly anyone is playing it now so after 291 games I'm done.

It's been a fun game but I can't start any new games with anyone because the game crashes.



05/10/2016

Weekly Update - Gaming, what's that?

It's been a bad few weeks for gaming, just not had any time to sit down and play any Deus Ex, No Mans Sky or even much Destiny. It's been the odd few minutes on the mobile only playing another round of Clash Royale or another turn in Carcassonne, Disc Drivin or Lost Cities.

A recap (more for myself to remember) on where I am on the various games. I left No Man's Sky on the Atlas path collecting Atlas Stones, I have 9 I think but will wait for Abbas to come back from Uni to collect the 10th.

Deus Ex I had just completed the Rucker main quest & returned to Prague. Destiny I've completed the main campaign, now have a stack of side quests & the grind to increase my light level.

I did start a new game on iOS called Wordlings, it's another letter/words game with different modes & powerups to get you even higher scores. It's perfect for a few minutes of gameplay which is all I seem to have at the moment.

XCom2 arrived in the post but I'm not starting it until I have finished Deus Ex & I placed a pre-order for Dragon Quest Builders because my daughter enjoyed the demo.

Downloaded the PS+ freebies for this month in Resident Evil & Transformers Devastation. Both good games & looking forward to playing them at some point.

Hopefully will finish of Diablo 3 with the Claptrap Boys this evening so we can move on to starting The Division.

28/09/2016

Weekly Update - 350 Light



Not had much time for gaming the last week so only really managed to play some Destiny with Hakk trying to get to that 350 light target.

Currently I am on 341 light with 350 Gauntlets, Chest, Boots & Artifact. I don't have any 350 weapons with 340 being my max on Primary & Heavy weapon. We tried to get to the top of Felwinter Peak to collect a Siva Cluster, I gave up after a few attempts but Harry carried on & finally managed it. I will need to ask him for directions so I can collect that cluster.



Not had time to return Deus Ex, No Mans Sky or Lego Star Wars Force Awakens. I did try the demo for Dragon Quest Builders which is Minecraft Jap RPG style & it's not bad. The third person camera is a bit fiddly when placing blocks but not a hindrance. I won't buy it at the moment because I have XCOM 2 coming soon & need to finish what I own before buying anymore but it is on the shopping list.

On iOS, Pokemon Go I am now level 22 after using a lucky egg. I'm taking a break from the game for a while now because it's become a bit of a grind. Clash Royale I seem to have gotten the hang of Arena 7 now with 2143 trophies & now slowly getting enough cards to upgrade my commons to level 10 & rares to level 7.

I finished last in the Carcassonne league & got relegated. Blocking is a tactic I need to ensure I use again because I'm always on the receiving end.

Plan for the next week some more Destiny, back to No Mans Sky & Deus EX.

22/09/2016

Carcassonne Super League - Season 3

It's been nearly a year but Season 3 is live !!

Some basic rules for the games, only the base pack to be used no expansions packs or hardcore/kid mode to be activated.

Three matches to be played 2 x 1vs1 matches & one three player match. Points to be awarded 2 points for a win & 1 point for finishing 2nd in the three player match.


Using Platinum league as an example, the matches to be played as below.
3 Player Game - Bushtopher vs And1976 vs Gospvg
2 Player Game - Bushtopher vs And1976
2 Player Game - Bushtopher vs Gospvg
2 Player Game - And1976 vs Gospvg

Send me the match results via Twitter, RLLMUK, UGVM or the comments section on this post.

Platinum
Bushtopher (4 Points)
and1976 (3 Points)
gospvg (2 Points)

Results
Bushtopher (99) vs and1976 (75) - Bustopher Wins
And1976 (122) vs gospvg (117) - And1976 Wins
Bushtopher (90) vs gospvg (73) - Bushtopher Wins

3 Player Match - Gospvg (99), And1976 (93) & Bushtopher (87) - 2 Points to gospvg & 1 point to And1976

Bushtopher wins the league & gospvg is relegated.

Gold
Lufferov (4 Points)
Satsuma
Arkham24601

Results
Lufferov (105) vs Satsuma (100) - Lufferov wins
Lufferov (124) vs Arkham (95) - Lufferov wins


Silver
Kerumba (3 Points)
Altashheth (2 Points)
StatusJones (4 Points)

Results
Kerumba (77) vs StatusJones (75) - Kerumba Wins
StatusJones (87) vs Altashheth (57) - StatusJones Wins
Altashheth (142) vs Kerumba (111) - Altashheth Wins
3 Player Match - StatusJones (69), Kerumba (66) & Altashheth (53) - 2 points to StatusJones & 1 point to Kerumba.

StatusJones wins the league & is promoted, Altashheth is relegated.

Bronze
JohnDarv
makingupnumbers (2 Points)
Garwoofoo (2 Points)

Results
Makingupnumbers (100) vs Garwoofoo (85) - Makingupnumbers Wins
Garwoofoo (99) vs John (90) - Garwoofoo Wins

Copper
Dr Watson (4 Points)
Carldjcross
lewismistreated (5 Points)

Results
Lewis (97) vs Dr Watson (68) - Lewis wins
Dr Watson (116) vs Carl (96) - Dr Watson wins
Lewis (129) vs Carl (114) - Lewis Wins
Dr Watson (87), Lewis (82) & Carl (69) - 2 points to Dr Watson & 1 point to Lewis

Lewis is promoted.

21/09/2016

Weekly Update - "I feel I can do this forever"



I am pretty sure I will forever be gaming. Although not had much time during the last week, blame Netflix & Gotham Season 2 for taking up most of my free time but I did manage some more Deus Ex visiting a rave club & Golem City which is maze of stairs & floors.

No Man's Sky had another update which promptly crashed my game yet again. Can't believe after so many patches I am still getting crashes?! I'm still on the atlas path collecting these stones. I'm assuming at some point something must happen with them?

Destiny Rise of Iron came out yesterday, I teamed up with Hakk & Gus to complete the main campaign missions. Took about two hours you have a new enemy type in splicer, the final mission was pretty tough & I'd almost say impossible if you are not playing in a fireteam. Once you have completed the main campaign, you then get access to lots of quests from the social area Felwinter Peak.


On iOS new updates to Carcassonne with three new expansions. Information on the update below, I'm playing a few games with the new expansions & the Abbot seems to be the most useful so far. Looking into kicking off a new tournament soon.

Abbot
The Abbot is a new game piece you place on Cloisters or Gardens (a new tile feature that will magically appear on some existing tiles). You can recall the Abbot at any time during the game, scoring points without needing to finish the Cloister or Garden first.


The Old River
This was the very first expansion ever to be published for Carcassonne. Introduced at the SPIEL 2001 toy fair in Germany, it remains a true collector's item.


German Cathedrals
The newest mini expansion comprising six famous German cathedrals. So new it's not even available in print until mid October.

You can place a meeple on a German cathedral to score points. Roads connected to a German cathedral score bonus points.

Pokemon Go introduced a new buddy pokemon system for receiving extra candy so I have gone with Pikachu.

I've also finally caught a Rhyhorn & a Venomoth so have perfect stats with 74 seen & caught.

Clash Royale I just seem to be hovering between arena 6 & 7 currently on 1951 trophies & just about keeping my own.




Still playing Capitals  & enjoyed a 3 round knockout against HaggisHunter :)




14/09/2016

Weekly Update - Robbing Banks, Destiny God & the Millennium Falcon

I've still not gone back to Lego Star Wars, Doh!

But I have been spending quite a bit of time hacking, breaking into banks, sneaking around & shooting enemies with my stun gun. Carried on with the main quest now that I had completed all the available side quests. The control scheme really needs a quick option to be able to access the map.

I spent quite a bit of time robbing the bank & it's corporate vaults for some nice loot.



Tried out the PS+ games, Journey of course is excellent but Lord of the Fallen is a dark souls type affair in which you fight big bosses, die & repeat. Badland is a  port of an iOS game which I got bored of within a few minutes. New PS4 firmware is out which let's you now create folders & filters the library to show you what you have installed vs purchased.

I had an amazing session in Destiny PvP by finishing 1st !!
That will be a one off feat never to be repeated again.



On No Man's Sky I have being flying around repairing crashed ships to upgrade to a 48 slot beast which my daughter has named the Millennium Falcon.


I've also got the Theta warp drive installed & have been jumping star systems to collect atlas stones.

Got back to playing Diablo 3 with the Claptrap Boys, no idea what is going on with the story but we have completed Act 4. Hopefully nearing the end so we can start The Division soon.

iOS? Made it to arena 8 now in Clash Royale but still no legendary cards. Managed to capture a few more rare pokemon in Parasect, Meowth, Machomp & another Bulbasaur. Current stats Caught 72 & Seen 74.

Fingers crossed hopefully back to some Lego Star Wars this week.

07/09/2016

Weekly Update - Deus Ex Mankind Divided

Well the Lego Star Wars idea went out of the window, I got hooked into playing Deus Ex Mankind Divided. Took me a while to remember some of the mechanics especially hacking but I'm comfortable now & enjoying going around Prague completing various side missions.



You start the game with a lot of augmentations but after suffering a malfunction from an explosion you need to visit a doctor to reboot your system, this gives you the chance to be a bit more selective on what skills you want to unlock.

I've completed a few of the side quests in Prague but basically I've been walking around and dealing with the smaller quests given to you by various NPC's & exploring places either by hacking or sneaking around via air vents. It's a good game, I like it will keep me busy for the next few weeks.

Decided to take a look at the free to play games on the playstation store & downloaded Neverwinter & Hawken. My son is trying out Neverwinter, it seems to have a lot of content but suffers really badly from frame rate issues. Hawken on the other hand I like, it's mech v mech combat :) Star Trek Online has been added today will add that to the download queue to give it a try.



The next lot of playstation plus games have been added in the brilliant Journey, Lords of the Fallen & Badland. Not tried any of them yet but will do during the week.

Played a bit of Destiny last week and got a new exotic heavy rocket launcher Dragon's Breath which I can't use because my one exotic weapon is the Suros Regime Auto Rifle but I did also get the Armamentarium exotic chest plate which gives you two grenades so swapped that out for the Crest of Alpha Lupi. I used my 200 silver coins to use at the Eververse shop so purchased the rude taunt emote.



I finally managed to hatch a 10K egg which was in an incubator for a couple of weeks & was rewarded with an Aerodactyl. I really need to remember to keep the app open when I am walking around. Level 21 now & I need a whopping 75K XP to get to the next level, time to use those lucky eggs I think.

On Clash Royale I manged to unlock the Golem card but it uses 8 elixir before you can play it !! It's very tough and when destroyed splits into two smaller golems. Had a bad run of games & dropped back to 1800 trophies.

I'm still enjoying pootling around in No Man's Sky, finally found some underwater creatures, really wish the game would auto-charge the breathing equipment form the resources you have to save you going back into menus every few minutes.

Followed the atlas path which **spoilers** I won't talk about here best to watch the video below if you want to know.




I do need to get back to some Lego Star Wars but expect I'll be distracted by Deus Ex. Until next week keep gaming :)



31/08/2016

Weekly Update - Gold !!



Straight to No Man's Sky what else?

I love it ! Finally found a planet with some gold !

Hallelujah !!

I'm still plodding along naming star systems after my history tab & planets after games. Altered Beast was a bit toxic but gold !

I also completed Walking Dead Michonne, It's a nice three episode series albeit a bit too predictable.

Not much to report on Pokemon Go, finally caught a Jynx but I missed out on catching a Venomoth so now have another pokemon to find and catch.

Had a decent run on Clash Royale now up to 1900 trophies.

Short & sweet for this week. Not played much Destiny for a while will wait for the new content to arrive until then focus on finishing off Lego Star Wars.

24/08/2016

Weekly Update - PinkyPinkSam



I've been spending a bit of time with my daughters creating content for their shared youtube channel, thanks to twitch it's very easy to record gameplay & then upload to youtube. The video above shows some Towerfall Ascension gameplay but we have also made videos on Tricky Towers, Goat Simulator, Minecraft & a Let's play series on Lego Star Wars The Force Awakens.

They enjoy making them & I'm happy to help out when I can.

I've gone back to playing Pokemon Go thanks to a few days out at locations that were covered in pokestops I now have over 200+ pokeballs. Finally caught a Jynx & only missing a Rhyhorn. Current pokedex stats are 66 caught & 67 seen.

With the girls wanting to play Clash Royale with their cousins & not knowing everyone in the UGVM clan I decided it was safer to make a new clan where the kids can all play together against each other. This will disadvantage me in the number or donations/card requests but I'm ok with that, it will give the kids a chance to catch me up & level up their towers & cards.

Had a good session with No Man's Sky yesterday I've now jumped to my 2nd system spent a bit of time in the space station, found a nice small yellow ship I liked but it was 10 million, I think I read somewhere that if you dismantle the upgrades on your current ship the new ship becomes cheaper.

Yeah, well that does not work, I went out of the space station & got attacked by pirates. I quickly upgraded what shields I could with the dismantled materials & legged it to the nearest planet. Got to a trading post and spent some credits upgrading my weapons on the starship.

There were three planets on gospvg - acorn electron but they were all pretty dull so I built another warp drive & went to the next star system. I got a notification about some anomaly in the galaxy which I have ignored for now.

Got to gospvg-atari ste, planet quartet & lemmings were boring the usual emeril & aluminium deposits. I then landed on planet dungeon master & it said the sentinels were hostile? What are they hiding I thought, I could not find anything so flew to the nearest trading post & saw these glowing white balls that had a green exclamation mark on them? Picked one up and my wanted level shot up to three & sentinels appeared out of nowhere including a dog-like creature. I just ran into the trading post praying they would not follow me inside. I forget what they are called but they are worth 27K each !!

Created a save point & called it a night. Will return to planet dungeon master soon to collect some more of these orbs. I need 10 million to buy that small yellow ship I want & get rid of my current tank.

Space battles (once you have the equipped shields & weapons) are really good fun.


Last but not least completed episode 2 of Walking Dead Michonne, it has some moments which really shock you & make you squirm a bit. One more episode to go which I should complete at some point this week.


17/08/2016

Weekly Update - No Man's Sky !! What Else?

What else would I be playing but No Man's Sky of course !!
It's amazing I love it, yes it may have some flaws, issues or features missing that Sean Murray said were in the game but I still love it for what it is now.

Took me a while to decide on a naming structure but then it clicked my history page http://www.gospvg.com/p/history.html 

So I have gone with gospvg-mini munchman for my first star system & named the planets after the nicknames for my kids. In the video below is my starting planet gospvg-nemo, I should have gone with just nemo & taken the gospvg prefix off like I did for my 2nd star system gospvg-acorn electron.



I've been playing for quite a bit focusing mainly on getting enough money to upgrade my exosuit from drop pods & upgrading my multi-tool.

I'm still with my first ship the Rasamama S36, wish you could rename ships, hopefully patched in the future by Hello Games.



I did go to my 2nd star system gospvg-acorn electron briefly but it was a bit dark & bare so I returned home to try and 100% the discoveries on the planets.

This game has me hooked & I probably won't be playing much else for a while.


10/08/2016

Weekly Update - 300 Games

I've been playing quite a bit of Destiny with my Titan on light level 296. Having finished the main Taken King campaign, I am now looking at the various sub-quests. Hopefully will get a UGVM team together to tackle the raid.

I'm enjoying playing the odd crucible match every day to get legendary marks, will hopefully get enough soon to purchase some year 1 exotics I love like the Suros Regime.


Played some more Lego Star Wars with my daughter (although having issues uploading the video to YouTube due to various copyrights on the sound, if I can't figure it out today I will play the levels again with the music turned off).

Not played much Pokemon Go recently got annoyed by the constant wasting of poke-balls to catch Pokemon. Hopefully this has been fixed in the latest update. Current pokedex stats are Caught 61 Seen 63 annoying Rhyhorn got away this week after using lots of raspberries & great balls.

Completed the 300th game in a row on Lost Cities with Carl recently.










Need to play the next episode in the Walking Dead game & looking forward to No Man's Sky hopefully arriving in the post today.

03/08/2016

Weekly Update - The Force Awakens

Started playing The Force Awakens with my youngest which is a good challenge in teaching her some basic gaming skills. It's going well so far we are up to chapter 3 & only a couple of time have come unstuck on what to do next?

The biggest issue at the moment which I can't figure out is if we only have two characters to choose from how can we swap so I can be BB8 & she can be Rey?

I also purchased Telltale Walking Dead Michonne in the current sale which is a three episode series, more of the same & no surprise yet having completed episode 1.

The big news is the return of Destiny !!


Again in the recent sale, the boys wanted it & I missed it a little bit.
It's good to be back playing with Hakk, Gus & the rllmuk guys.

Pokemon Go I am finding frustrating because the game now requires me to waste so many pokeballs catching a simple pokemon, I wasted 8 catching a Pidgey & lost 6 trying to catch a Squirttle. I'm not enjoying it anymore.

Clash Royale is going well I now have my commons up to level 9 & have broken into Arena 6 !!

Can't wait till next week No Man's Sky :)



12/07/2016

Pokemon Go - Gotta Catch Em All

I'm impatient I have the app running via a US download & it's good fun walking around capturing pokemon. I had to restart the game again because it takes over full access if you sign in with a google account so I created a pokemon account to start again.

Charmander is my pokemon of choice, I don't want to cheat to get a Pikachu, I will earn mine !!

I've traded in duplicates to the professor & currently have 10 pokemon including Psyduck, Drowzee & Poliwag.

I also have 4 eggs which I need to hatch, these take time you have to place these in an incubator & walk around to make them hatch.

Luckily at home I have a few pokestops (useful for collecting more pokeballs & items) & a gym fairly close. At work the same a couple of pokestops & two gyms.

The lunchtime walks are now more interesting stopping & collecting pokemon on the way round the science park.

Gotta catch em all !!

03/07/2016

Completed - Ratchet & Clank, This War of Mine & Gone Home

Completed Ratchet & Clank, last boss fight took me a few attempts it has various stages where the final boss changes attack style. Lovely game & enjoyed playing an old school platforming game again.

Next was This War of Mine which has you controlling a group of survivors during a war so you need to manage your food, defences, health, sleep, mood & everything else.

It's a tough game & I only got to day 6 on my first attempt. The next game I managed to get to day 16 & then finally on my third attempt I had the game figured out with a regular supply of food, materials & medicine. It is a very thought-provoking game & makes you think what people in this situation would do to survive.

I then went through the many PS+ freebies on PS4 to try some of them out most I got bored within minutes & deleted but I enjoyed playing Gone Home which is a walking simulator type of game. You arrive back from a European holiday & have to piece the clues together to find out what has happened to your family. It's a short game but very well written.

Next, not sure yet, still deciding...

23/06/2016

Shopping List 2016

With E3 over I now have a better idea of what is coming out the rest of this year so my provisional shopping list below.

June
Lego Star Wars Force Awaken (Pre-ordered)
Played the recently released demo & my youngest enjoyed it. I've not played a Lego game since Undercover on the WiiU & before that it was the original Star Wars games on the PS2 so probably long overdue another dose of Lego.

July
I am Setsuna - Lovely old school JRPG by Squeenix, From the couple of videos I have seen of E3 reaction it plays similar to Chrono Trigger so no random battles.

August
Abzu - Think Journey but underwater with hopefully another great soundtrack by Austin Wintory
No Man's Sky - Game of the year, can't wait. I think I will be playing this for years. Day one, once I can find a competitively priced pre-order.
Deus Ex Mankind Divided - Already pre-ordered I've not seen any of the E3 footage, enjoyed the previous game enough to know I will be buying this on release, media blackout on this now.

September
X-Com 2 - Finally coming to consoles can't wait to get stuck in. The previous game I started on the 360 but it got left to one side until it was given away on PS+ on the PS3. I loved it once you get stuck in the strategy & tactics are brilliant fun.

October
Dragon Quest Builders - JRPG & Minecraft come together this is going to be good? Right?

Nov to Dec
Nothing at the moment which is probably ok the above will keep me busy for a while.

22/06/2016

Disc Drivin - Amazing Jump



Still playing with Luffers on a regular basis, he is really good at jumping even in tight spaces !!

09/06/2016

iOS Update

A quick update also on iOS gaming, I enjoyed playing Football Chairman Pro for many hours & currently I'm enjoying Hero Emblems a JRPG puzzle quest style game & Mekorama which is a Captain Toad like puzzler.

I'm also going to go back through all my hundreds of iOS purchased games to make sure I have played all those hidden gems that I downloaded & ignored. So I have started with Helsing's Fire which has you battling vamparic creatures with light & tonics.

I'm always also playing my favourite turn based games like Carcassonne, Lost Cities, Capitals, Fluxx & Disc Drivin.

PS4 Update

It's been a while since my last post so an update on what I have been doing on the PS4.

I completed Batman Arkham Knight & started Uncharted 4 which I could not put down. Amazing experience that I completed within a week (It probably helped that I was off work that week so had more time to game).

Then I started playing Ratchet & Clank which is just like playing a cartoon, lovely graphics. I & the boys are still working our way through the Trackmania Turbo & have completed the first set of tracks. I even managed to get my first Trackmaster which Mohsin went and beat on his next turn.

Looking forward to E3 & brilliant news about X-Com 2 coming to consoles.

13/05/2016

Never Ending Games

I've decided to quit playing Clash Royale & Galaxy of Heroes. The grind in Clash Royale was just too much & the constant needs for character shards or shortage of gold/materials in Galaxy of Heroes was just beginning to bore.

I also did not see an end point for either game which is the main reason I stopped I'm not a fan of never ending games.

Give me a good campaign I can enjoy & by all means add a multi-player section that I can dabble in but once I am done with the campaign I am usually finished with the game.

I am sure time plays a huge part is this because the older I get the gaming time I have seems to decrease. I've only managed 2 hours this week playing Helldivers with the Claptrap Boys which by the way is a fun co-op game.

Need to find some time to finish off Batman, I'm at a difficult driving section near the end which I have tried on a few occasions & just cannot complete.

I'll leave you Limahl


03/05/2016

New Game - Galaxy of Heroes (iOS)

I've started playing Galaxy of Heroes recently on the ipad, you collect Star Wars heroes (Light/Dark) and battle through campaign missions & various PvP modes.

Getting new characters is all down to luck in a pack or a lot of grinding for shards to unlock them. The two good characters I have at the moment are Ima-Gun Di who is a tank type class & Talia who is a healer.

19/04/2016

Lara Croft Go (iOS) - Completed

Now that I have an iPad of my own that the kids cannot nick I have gone back to playing some games on it.

Lara Croft Go was my first choice, it's a turn by turn based puzzle game that has you obviously searching for treasure whilst avoiding pitfalls & either escaping or killing creatures like snakes/lizards.

I only managed to get stuck on one level for a while until I figured it out but the majority are pretty straight forward & fairly simple. There is also a Hitman Game which use's a similar play-style which I have not yet played. There is a new Monument Valley style game called Dream Machine which I will start next but for now back to Batman.

15/04/2016

Batman Arkham Knight - New Game



I had quite a few choices on what to play next after completing MGSV but I decided to go for Batman Arkham Knight, the final game in the Rocksteady trilogy.

Firstly I like that is has a difficulty mode setting so I went straight for easy to save on any rsi pains during the long fight sequences. I've played a fair bit already just not had time to blog about it, there are tons of side missions from the riddler challenges, murder investigations to rescuing firemen.

I wasn't sure how the batmobile would be used but it is implemented pretty well & enjoyable to drive around & complete various challenges. The main campaign so far is about Scarecrow & other villains who have teamed up to take over the city. There are some very good story sequences which I won't spoil but I am enjoying the game very much.



12/04/2016

Draw Something - Gameboy

I've not played Draw Something for a few years but my youngest is enjoying the game lately & wanted someone to challenge. Thankfully my account was still valid with all the colours that I purchased previously.

One of my recent better drawings was the Nintendo Gameboy, guess the game?

09/04/2016

Clash Royale - That winning feeling

Winning a hard fought match is very enjoyable & it is even more satisfying if you manage to win in the last second of the game.

With 3 seconds to go till overtime I launched some arrows which destroyed the enemy tower with no time left on the clock.

I am firmly in arena 4 now with around 1300+ trophies (it fluctuates depending on my wins/losses).

Need some more gold to upgrade the Prince & then aim for 1400 trophies to make it into arena 5.

08/04/2016

Metal Gear Solid V - Completed

The final few missions have you replaying some of the earlier missions with more difficulty which seems really odd not sure why?

Anyhow in between these are some new missions to complete & a chain of Eli/Quiet missions which finish off their story-lines.

The final mission surprise surprise is a replay of the first but with some home truths thrown in to show you the real picture.

A sometimes confusing experience but overall an enjoyable open world game, not sure if we will ever see another game in the series but I for one will not miss the long cut scenes.

Goodbye Snake.
(Spoilers in the video below)

29/03/2016

Metal Gear Solid V - Back Again

After completing Game of Thrones I've gone back to Metal Gear Solid to continue with the so called part 2.

I tried Episode 33 previously so did not bother attempting that again & instead went with Episode 34 Backup, Back Down. Grabbed a missile launcher & just destroyed lots of vehicles fairly easily.

I did miss the open world gameplay & do enjoy cleaning out camps of soldiers. I've hit the base limit of 1400 staff so I've been getting rid of any B or lower rated staff to replace with the S or A ranked that can be found or rewarded.

Completed a few more missions & some side-ops over the Easter weekend. Did not enjoy a certain Quiet interrogation cut-scene but cracking on to Episode 38 next.


23/03/2016

Clash Royale - Skeleton Army

Yes, finally got it !!

Skeleton Army is great for taking care of tank type enemies like the giant, prince or skeleton giant.

Although they can easily be defeated by the arrows, I will still keep them in my deck.

21/03/2016

Clash Royale - Clans

You can join a clan once you have reached level 3. Being part of a clan gives you access to donate & request cards. If you donate you are rewarded with experience & gold.

You can also chat with clan members & have friendly battles.

If you are looking for a clan to join, search for ugvm

I'm level 6 at the moment & hovering around 925 trophies. Seem to be getting quite a few drawers lately.

Telltale Game of Thrones - Completed

Managed to find a bit of time this weekend to sit down and play through the remaining episodes.

In true Game of Thrones style there are some shock sequences & not much in the way of happy endings.

Like most Telltale games if you enjoy the original content then you will enjoy the experience.

Season 1 completed.

Not sure what I'm going to play next, maybe DriveClub or part 2 of MGS V?

14/03/2016

Clash Royale - Deck Building

The game let's you have three decks, my first has all the lowest characters 1's, 2's & some 3's this gives me an average elixir rate of 2.6 good for an assault on enemy towers but you have to be careful when facing off against some of the tougher characters.

I tend to play with deck 2 mostly because it gives me a good range with a couple of strong characters like the Giant/Baby Dragon & basic characters like archers, knights & bombers. I do like the bomb tower which can defend a large area.

Deck 3 is the strongest with all the big heavy hitters but the average elixir cost of 4.2 takes a while to recharge.

I would say anything between 3 to 3.5 is about right to have a strong team. I've level 5 at the moment & nearly have 800 trophies to unlock Arena 3.

Outside of iOS I'm still plodding along on Game of Thrones & completed Episode 3 yesterday evening. I've not yet deleted my MGS5 save so may yet go back to play Part 2.

08/03/2016

New Game - Clash Royale

Once again thanks to Satsuma, I've been playing the new game from the Clash of Clans developers Clash Royale. It uses a similar style to Clash of Clans but this time you use a battle deck & elixir to attack your opponent's tower.

It has a few timers on chests unlock & you need quite a bit of gold to level up characters past level 3 but I'm enjoying it for the 5 to 10 mins a day I play it.

New Game - Totems

I do enjoy my iOS board games & recently downloaded Totems which has you placing down totems to control an area on the map, your opponent can place the same token next to yours to take control of the area & vice versa.

The screenshot shows me winning a game against Satsuma controlling the whole map.


It needs a few changes on the multi-player like a rematch option with a random map & the friends list needs to only list those that own the game & not everyone.

29/02/2016

Metal Gear Solid V - Sahelanthropus - Completed



Yes I'm still playing Metal Gear Solid V, the difficulty has increased in the last few missions which have resulted in quite a few failed attempts & the inevitable Snake, SnakE, SNAKE !!

I was especially frustrated with Mission 31 where twice I managed to get very close to killing Sahelanthropus only to die by an explosion or rocket. Mohsin wanted to have a turn & managed to complete the mission. With the ending FMV & roll of credits I expected the game to be completed but apparently not.

I'm probably done with the game for now so for me I am marking it as complete. Back to Game of Thrones & Episode 2.

24/02/2016

Lara Croft Temple of Osiris - Completed

Our first PS4 PMG completed, the last boss fight was much easier than I thought. No idea about the plot Egyptian gods fighting against each other or something but it was an decent twin stick shooter with a few puzzles.

Twin stick shooters unfortunately seem to be the norm for most 4 player games, there really should be more choice by now.

We still have Gauntlet & Helldivers to play but next on the play list is the daddy of them all Diablo 3.

Capitals - Rolling Thunder

Finally managed to get the rolling thunder achievement in Capitals by winning eight games on the trot.

Current game stats are 291 games played with 173 wins at 59% win ratio.

Longest word is Sectionally.


19/02/2016

01/02/2016

Lifeline (iOS) - Completed

Lifeline is the mobile equivalent of the choose your own adventure books I read as a kid.

Cadet Taylor ship has crashed on a moon & he needs your help to survive & ultimately escape from the moon.

I can't go into too much detail without spoiling the story but it had me hooked for a few days & I've gone straight onto play the next game in the series Lifeline Silent Night.

30/01/2016

Metal Gear Solid V - Quiet

Whilst waiting for episode 2 of Game of Thrones to download I returned to Metal Gear Solid V it took me a while to remember the controls. SNAKE !! Snake snaKE !!!!

I played a few side missions clearing out mines, rescuing prisoners & shooting all my sleep ammo into a bear to capture him. This helped my brain refresh the controller pad layout.

The boys always complain when I play because I take so long to complete a mission. I like to visit every outpost and clear them of soldiers & resources. I don't use lethal weapons only sleep or stun weapons so I can extract the soldiers back to my base to level up each platform.

I have mostly A rated soldiers or above on all of my platforms, I've upgraded the main platform to the max 4/4 & the others are on the third tier. To upgrade to the fourth stage requires a stupid amount of resources which I have some from the extracted containers but need to wait for them to be processed.



I have now unlocked Quiet to become a companion and she is very useful, I have her scout out an outpost & then cover me so I don't get attacked. I then analyse the soldiers looking for any S Rated soldiers to extract. The horse for a companion was useful for moving around the terrain but now I use a Jeep. I've not yet tried the D Walker companion to see if that is any good.

I've just completed mission 18 Blood Runs Deep & Quiet was very useful killing the enemies whilst I extracted the child soldiers. I understand why Quiet wears her skimpy outfit but I don't like it & with her bond now maxed out I have given her the gold outfit.


Episode 2 to 6 of Game of Thrones has now downloaded but for now I will continue with Metal Gear Solid V.

22/01/2016

New Game - Telltale Game of Thrones

With no luck in the fifa packs for a TOTY player, I decided to leave Fifa & start playing Telltale's Game of Thrones instead.

Quite a short episode only a couple of hours but some very good moments including a meeting with Ramsay Bolton.

My only annoyance with the telltale games is the timer on the dialogue options, I just wished it was not in the game thus allowing the player more time to decide which dialogue option they wish to choose.

Also started Borderlands Pre Sequel which now has a local four-player option so should be fun & chaotic. Need to get back to Metal Gear Solid V & DriveClub at some point but I expect this weekend will be mostly Borderlands & hopefully Episode 2 of Game of Thrones.

15/01/2016

Fifa 16 - Getting ready for TOTY packs



After finishing Fallout 4 I've gone back to playing Fifa & FUTdraft to collect packs for the TOTY team release this weekend, I've got 12 packs at the moment waiting to open in the hope I can get one TOTY player.

I usually play FUTdraft with the boys and to make it more interesting we are now choosing our selections by blind picks (picking a number & see who we get). This has resulted in some dreadful choices like John Terry, Shane Long or a horrible formation like 5221.

Scored a lovely volley with Hulk, wish me luck for the weekend for a TOTY player.

05/01/2016

Fallout 4 - Completed

It's an enjoyable game but feels all too familiar, the main campaign is not that satisfying especially the ending & only a few of the sidequests offer a new experience.

It's a much more reliable release though, I had a few crashes & graphical glitches but much less than the previous games on the 360.

I've completed the ending for Brotherhood of Steel & part way through the Railroad ending not sure I can muster the enthusiasm at the moment to see it through, after playing it for quite a bit over the xmas break I need to just step away from gaming at the moment.

Overall not bad but certainly not game of the year.




2015 Review inc Game of the Year

It's been a much quieter year for gaming, the amount of time I have for gaming is forever shrinking. Excluding iOS & DLC I only completed 11 games, 4 of which were very short.

Watch_Dogs (PS4)
Peggle 2 (PS4)
MGSV - Ground Zeroes (PS4)
Knack (PS4)
Shadow of Mordor (PS4)
CounterSpy (PS4)
Assassin's Creed Unity (PS4)
Battlefield Hardline (PS4)
Journey (PS4)
Witcher 3 Wild Hunt (PS4)
Fallout 4 (PS4)

Witcher 3 was my game of the year because unlike Fallout 4 it kept me entertained for the full length of the game & had a satisfying ending. I also enjoyed Shadow of Mordor but the last boss fight was far too easy.

Maybe I need to stop playing long open world games that consume many hours to complete & enjoy the smaller indie titles like Counterspy or Journey. I have quite a few of these thanks to PS+ & the PSN sale purchases like the Telltale Borderlands & Game of Thrones games. I enjoy playing/watching a good story & it's probably why given the choice I would rather watch a movie then play a game that has resulted in less gaming time.

My predictions from last year included purchasing a Xbox1 console never came true, with my limited gaming time one console is more than enough for me. The WiiU carried on gathering dust & I expect that will be gone at some point this year.

Spending wise I only purchased 3 games on release, Metal Gear Solid V, Fifa 16 & Fallout 4. Everything else was either in a sale or from trades. I don't think I spent more than £150 throughout the year.

2016 then will be very similar to this year, just enjoy what I already own & buy the odd few titles I want on release like Uncharted 4 & No Man's Sky.